He started off his pre-match press conference talking about injuries; “I want to wait until tomorrow. We have some problems, yes. Ramires, Drogba, Diego Costa, Schürrle, Mikel, it’s a long list.” He then went on stay that despite giving his three-Spanish internationals a two-day rest after their Euro 2016 exertions Diego Costa turned up to training anyway.
Discussing last year’s fixture between the two sides Mourinho said, “It was one of those games where we lost and deserved to lose. We lost there last season because they were better than us in every aspect of the game." The Portugese then brought up his side’s performances this season, "This season we have more personality to impose our game. Sometimes you want to impose your style and sometimes you want to adapt to the opponents’ style."
Last season this fixture all but ended Chelsea’s hopes of winning the title after John Terry put the ball into his own net for the only goal of the game. Their trailblazing start to this season has been mainly due to the form of new signing Diego Costa, but it is unknown whether or not Mourinho might save him for the mid-week game against Maribor in the Champions’ League. Costa needs to score one goal against Palace to equal Micky Quinn’s record of 10 goals in his first 8 appearances for Coventry City, a feat that Costa accomplished last year with Atletico Madrid
Despite that loss to Palace last year, Chelsea has a very strong record in London derbies having won 14 out of their last 15 regional ties. Palace certainly won’t be pushovers, it’s been 318 minutes since they last conceded at home, in a 3-1 defeat to West Ham United. They did however lose their last game in the Premier League which was away to Hull City.